"Matt's First Buck"

By HSP Member, Terry (Dad)

Matt shot his first deer when he was 9. It was a young doe. The last two years he has put in countless hours in the stand without getting a shot.

This year we hunted both days of youth season and only saw one deer in the thick woods that didn't offer a shot. I told him that since he didn't have any opportunities during youth season that he could go during the regular firearms season. He was very excited. It would be his first time hunting the opening weekend.

On Saturday morning we were in the blind early. It was the same blind we hunted on Saturday morning of youth season. The spot looks great and had "deer sign," so I knew it should only be a matter of time before we saw something. It is on a tree line looking into a cut bean field that is very secluded with a bedding area across the field. We got our gear ready, loaded the gun, and I tell Matt to get his shooting sticks ready. He looks at me like, "uh oh." I had told him at the truck his only job was to make sure he grabs the shooting sticks. Of course, like 12 year olds do, he forgot. I told him, no big deal. It was still dark, so I got out of the blind and found a stick on the ground. I cut it into a V on one end and cut the other end so it was at the right height for him to shoot from. He thought that was cool.

We saw our first deer about 6:45, a spike buck. Not a shooter, but it was nice to see a deer and this brought our hopes up. About 7:15 I see a doe across the field on the tree line. She keeps walking toward us and stops about 90 yards from us on the tree line. Matt is ready, with his gun resting on the stick. He shot. The deer jumped and ran down the field edge about 20 yards and turned into the woods. I could tell by the way she was running that he hit her, but I was not sure how good. Matt wanted to go look for her, but I told him we should wait. It was still early and you never know what could step out.

About 15 minutes later, we see another doe coming from the exact same spot as the first one. I asked him if he wanted to shoot it. We only bought him one doe tag and he said he wanted to save his other tag for a buck. He said, dad you shoot it. We love deer meat and make our own sausage and jerky, so I shot the deer. She went down and then hopped up and lunged towards the wood line and we lost sight of her. Now Matt was ready to go look for the deer. I told him it was only 7:30. We still had most of the morning left. You never know, a buck could step out. Little did I know what was about to happen.

The tree line the blind is on backs up to another bean field, so the last place I expected a deer to come from was from behind us. The way we were sitting in the blind, Matt was looking to left and front, and I was looking to the right and front. About 7:45, I was glassing the tree line to our right and Matt says "dad, there he is!" I look to the left and the deer is standing about 30 yards to our left on the same tree line our blind is on. I see it is a buck and that it is legal. The deer starts walking across the field. Matt gets his gun up and I ask him if he is on the deer. He says yes, so I stop the deer and Matt shoots. The deer stumbled, took about two steps and fell in the middle of the field. Matt was one excited young man and dad was pretty excited to!

Matt said "now can we get out of the blind?" I said you bet! We walked up to the deer and it was a solid 8 pointer, a great first buck! We then went to look for the two does we shot earlier. Both were lying just out of our sight.

What a great day! In three years of hunting Matt had only one shot at a deer and now he has shot two in thirty minutes. Thank goodness for the deer cart. All three deer were big bodied and I would have dreaded the thought of having to drag them out.